The Apocalypse is nigh: Rush Limbaugh is correct about something » « A little too close to home

Emma Thompson says it all

Exactly right.

The Apocalypse is nigh: Rush Limbaugh is correct about something » « A little too close to home

Comments

  1. Ogvorbis: Swimming without a parachute. says

    Emma Thompson tells us the Harvey Weinstein allegations are just the tip of the iceberg of a wider and systemic problem in Hollywood the United States (and the rest of the world, for that matter).

    That ‘tip of the iceberg’ is but one of many thousands of tips of ice sticking up through the waters of civilization, all connected to a massive icefield of sexism, misogyny, rape, assault, harrassment, etc. I wonder if there is any field of social or commercial activity in which the Weinsteins of the world do not lurk like predators around a waterhole.

  2. Ogvorbis: Swimming without a parachute. says

    And I just reread what I wrote. Sorry. I was not trying to downplay what Weinstein and others have done in Hollywood by claiming others have it worse. Bad writing on my part. Sorry.

  3. says

    And of course in the replies there is the usual “she should have spoken out earlier” crap despite all the evidence of what happens (and doesn’t happen) when women speak out. Emma Thompson would have been ignored or attacked. It took a man talking about Bill Cosby for that story to finally get legs.

  4. microraptor says

    It’s sadly not a surprise. I mean, this was the “casting couch” that women in the film industry have been trying to tell us about for over a century.

  5. tacitus says

    If it was this hard for women to speak out against a movie mogul, just think how difficult it must be to speak out against the Predator in Chief…

  6. The very model of a modern armchair general says

    When the first revelations of sex abuse within the Catholic church came out, I remember thinking it must have been caused by the church’s rules about celibacy and sexual repression. They try to bottle it up, push it down far enough, and eventually it erupts in the worst way possible.

    Since then, I’ve revised my opinion. We’ll continue to find this pattern of behaviour anywhere that there’s a large imbalance of power. Movie producers, sports coaches, policemen, politicians, priests… anywhere there’s an important man (and it is nearly always men) with the power to make or break your career, or bend the law in your favour, or save your soul from damnation, who the whole community looks up to and reveres, you’ll find sexual abuse. Power is the problem.

  7. gijoel says

    Wow, talk about putting knocking the ball into the carpark. I remember a story about Hayley Atwell tell Emma that she had been pressured to lose weight for a film they were in. Emma marched to the producers and read them the riot act over it. They stopped making comments about Hayley’s weight after that.

  8. richardemmanuel says

    Why do you think millionaires are not whores? That’s the sixty million dollar question. Enough of these inequality campaigners.

  9. bargearse says

    gijoel @ 7

    Apparently the producer that Thompson read the riot act to was one Harvey Weinstein,

  10. says

    Saw this the other day:

    “‘A Tale of Two Coreys’ biopic

    A new Lifetime biopic aims to chronicle the life and career of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, with Feldman’s blessing. “A Tale of Two Coreys” will depict the behind-the-scenes reality for the two actors who co-starred in “The Lost Boys,” “License to Drive” and other ’80s and ’90s movies. Both actors struggled with substance abuse and Haim died at age 38 after drugs and other issues reportedly beginning from when he was raped at age 11. The TV movie, which will be set six years after Haim’s death with flashbacks, is expected to air in 2018.”

    And this isn’t the first time pedophilia in Hollywood has come up in recent years

  11. lakitha tolbert says

    #10 Cadfile: Indeed! I’m reminded of a statement made a few months ago by Elijah Woods. He was made to hush up about it, very quickly, after an apology.

    It seems every industry dominated by men (all of them?)has this problem. Given the opportunity they’ll prey on women, but if there aren’t that many women available, they will happily prey on other men. I’m reminded of the military’s ongoing problem of sexual assault.

    Also, Terry Crews just came out as a sexual assault victim on Twitter, in support of these women’s stories. I try to keep in mind that for every Weinstein, there are true gentlemen in the world, like Terry.

  14. bassmike says

    I’m feeling pessimistic.
    Every walk of life has the propensity for a power imbalance. Once that occurs the one in power (almost always an older white man) has the opportunity to take advantage. I would further suggest that the personality of someone who gets to that position of power inclines them to want to use the power for their own ends. The power imbalance means that the word of the one with little power will always be worth less than the powerful one, so it’s only when they get some power themselves, or there is a collective accusation, that anything gets taken seriously.

    There are ways to counteract this: reduce the power differential; put measures in place to reduce opportunity for abuse of power; create an environment where reporting of incidents is seen to be taken seriously and followed up; reduce the number of older white men in power.

    Of course those in charge will close ranks and try and prevent any such measures being implemented. Which is why I’m so pessimistic. Especially when one of the most powerful people on the planet is a serial offender.

  15. gijoel says

    @9 My respect for Ms Thompson increases whilst my contempt for Weinstein punches through the Earth’s mantle.

  16. rietpluim says

    Once again I doubted my reading skills, and then someone made me realize that what I read was just incoherent nonsense #8

  17. says

    I might have commented it before, but Lord Acton had it right back in 1870
    “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority”.